I had my stove inspected last year and had to flip my piping. Inspector said the easy way to know is, if you'd pour water down the chimney from the roof, it wouldn't come in thru the joints. First I ever heard of that.

The reduced end was down, because that is the way it fit in the woodstove. About halfway up there is a slider pipe that is used to connect the single pipe through the ceiling jack, then out to the roof. This slider pipe makes it easy to assemble and clean.

The reduced end was down, because that is the way it fit in the woodstove.

Yep, thats the long and the short of it. If I just had to have it the other way, would have to crip the non-reduced end so first section would be reduced on both ends. I have seen stoves though where you need the non-reduced end to fit over the flange. If everything works as its supposed to, then doesnt really matter. There should be enough draw to take smoke up and out without dripping creosote either way. If you are dripping significant creosote, then you are burning too green wood.

__________________

"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

with male end down it is recommended to coat the connection with high temp sealer or make sure you have a pair of good fitting pipe so smoke or exhaust can not escape around the connection. With male end up you have a funnel effect of the lower pipe feeding to the inside of the upper pipe and no exhaust leak. Have installed stoves that start with a male end at stove and instructions state to install with male ends feeding up, and have seen stoves the opposite way also. Fire Marshel here likes them male feeding up into female so sparks & fumes cannot escape. Local stove store tells everybody to do it opposite so cresote dosn't run to outside of pipe. If I was careless enough and had to worry about cresote running down a stove pipe I won't burn wood, that much cresote and not useing a chimney spark arrester with a cap to prevent rain entry, the person deserves to have there house burned out from under them. !!!!

Assuming a drawing wood stove or wood boiler, the correct way is with the crimped end down. As the chmney cools it will condense some moisture, and if you assemble the other way your joints will leak black goo out each joint, even if you are so perfect you don't think you will ever make any creosote.

A properly drawing chinmey will have a slight natural vaccum and so will not leak smoke out the joints, at least not after a very brief warmup.

I don't know much about powered exhausts (pellet stoves or some exotic wood stoves), or if you were talking about lp/ natural gas devices, etc - that would be a whole different deal.

with male end down it is recommended to coat the connection with high temp sealer or make sure you have a pair of good fitting pipe so smoke or exhaust can not escape around the connection. With male end up you have a funnel effect of the lower pipe feeding to the inside of the upper pipe and no exhaust leak. Have installed stoves that start with a male end at stove and instructions state to install with male ends feeding up, and have seen stoves the opposite way also. Fire Marshel here likes them male feeding up into female so sparks & fumes cannot escape. Local stove store tells everybody to do it opposite so cresote dosn't run to outside of pipe. If I was careless enough and had to worry about cresote running down a stove pipe I won't burn wood, that much cresote and not useing a chimney spark arrester with a cap to prevent rain entry, the person deserves to have there house burned out from under them. !!!!

You apparently have never tried to use some of old "antique" stoves that I have. Some were designed where the crimped end simply doesnt fit the flange, but the non-crimped end does. Now not arguing the best way to go in such a situation is to simply cut the crimped part off so you have first section of stove pipe with no crimped end. But the manufacturer of the stove must have intended that stove pipe was installed opposite of what you think is an absolute rule.

And again if your wood is well cured and you burn a hot fire, there simply isnt that much creosote to ever cause a problem. If you have creosote running down pipe no matter how you install it, then you are burning too green wood or have stove set to burn too low or both.

__________________

"What would you do with a brain if you had one?" -Dorothy

"Well, then ignore what I have to say and go with what works for you." -Eliot Coleman

I'm a reduced end down sorta guy myself but was stunned that the Vozelgang stove kit I bought wont work that way it needs the big end down.
I thought maybe it was just me.
But apparently the folks at Vozelgang don't actually USE their product?

Id thought about cutting the reduced end off of one section of pipe. Wont that give me the same result?
The reason that I haven't though is like with a adapter I'm still going to have the same result creosote on the outside of the stove..